PRRI

MLB Players Take a Knee

July 22, 2020

In 2017, Republicans were more than twice as likely as Democrats to support a requirement that pro-athletes stand during the national anthem (89% vs. 43%, respectively). On Tuesday, members of several professional baseball teams knelt during the performance of the national anthem prior to exhibition games. “No matter how you twist this story my intentions today were based solely on wanting change throughout the country,” Cincinnati Reds’ pitcher Amir Garrett posted online after the game. “I’m hopeful for the younger generations to see through the lost message.”

In a recent interview with CNN, PRRI CEO and founder Robert P. Jones previewed his upcoming book “White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity.“ White Christian churches have not just been complacent; they have not only been complicit,” Jones writes. “Rather, as the dominant cultural power in America, they have been responsible for constructing and sustaining a project to protect White supremac y and resist Black equality.” According to Jones, “this project has framed the entire American story.” “White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity” will be released July 28th and is available for pre-order now.

In 2018, PRRI found that Americans were just as likely to say that playing competitive sports is very important to the physical and emotional development of both young women (43%) and young men (41%). On Tuesday, the National Women’s Soccer League chose a group led by actress Natalie Portman to bring women’s soccer to Los Angeles. “We started going to games, and we quickly became really passionate fans of the sport,” the Oscar-winner tells PEOPLE. “But we slowly started seeing that it wasn’t getting the celebration it deserved.” The unnamed franchise is expected to debut in 2022.

PRRI’s most recent data shows that more than six in ten (63%) white evangelical Protestants and about four in ten (41%) white mainline Protestants hold favorable opinions of President Donald Trump. According to Sarah Mucha at CNN, former Vice President Joe Biden could make inroads with the evangelical community. “Voters recently have appeared less convinced of the authenticity of Trump’s religiosity and more concerned about moral issues like stewardship of the environment and treatment of immigrants at the border, providing an opening for a candidate like Joe Biden, who has been a practicing Catholic his entire life and made it central to his political identity,” she writes. Additional data shows that less than half of white mainline Protestants (49%), white Catholics (40%), and white evangelical Protestants (29%) view the former vice president favorably .